


Shifts in Light

by fluffernutter8



Category: Veronica Mars (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, F/F, F/M, girl!Logan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-01
Updated: 2014-10-01
Packaged: 2018-02-19 13:24:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2389847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fluffernutter8/pseuds/fluffernutter8
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes we can pinpoint moments when our lives change. Preseries genderbend AU with female Logan.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shifts in Light

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Ghostcat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ghostcat/gifts).



They've always changed together, the three girls in one room and Duncan waiting for them outside. A couple of years ago it would have been Duncan and Logan already cannonballing into the pool while Lilly finished painting her toenails to match her swimsuit, but then Lilly and Logan became a thing and now it takes them ten times longer.

Veronica is already changed, and if she were braver or if Duncan would just _ask her out already_ she would go outside and talk to him. But as it is, she stays with the two of them, her best friends, not sure if it’s a mistake.

It’s not that she is uncomfortable with Logan and Lilly being together. Logan says that her dad would be, so it’s mostly a secret even though Lilly is almost desperate to make out with her somewhere Celeste will just happen upon them. (“She deserves the aneurysm,” she tells Veronica, waving a hand around. “You know if Duncan came home with a boy she’d be planning the civil union of the century. But if I hook up with a girl, even one as obviously gorgeous as Logan, it would be the passive-aggressive patrol reminding me not to embarrass the family with my _phase_.”) In a vague, politically correct way it’s nice that Logan and Lilly have a place where they can just be them together. It's just that it used to be them, the girls. Even though Logan was really Duncan's best friend and Veronica was Lilly's, there was something that grouped the three of them together just because they were girls. And Veronica missed that, the feeling of being part of a three instead of two and an awkward one. More concretely, though: do they have to be so touchy?

Veronica calls Logan “Paperback Reader” because there’s always a little novel tucked into her bag. It’s usually to give Logan something to do, like when they’re out shopping and Lilly and Veronica can try things on for hours but Logan will only strike three or four poses before her ADD kicks in. Now it's Veronica who is grateful for it, trying to use a Dorothy Sayers mystery to block out, at least a little, the way Lilly and Logan are giggling together.

“Are you almost done?” she finally ventures, glancing up from the book. They seem to be. Their clothes are scattered around in a messier way than Veronica would ever leave them, but that’s just them. More importantly, four pieces of swimsuit are in place.

“We sure are, V,” Logan says, amused and scorching, back still to Veronica as she brushes hair away from Lilly's face. Veronica kneels up on the bed, prepared to climb off and drag them out the door. But as she shifts on her knees, Logan looks over her shoulder and there’s something about her face, about the way her lazy smirk seems almost to run into her carefully tangled, sun-highlighted hair, that makes Veronica’s stomach slip. It's a different feeling than the silly, sparking excitement when she imagines dancing with Duncan at Homecoming; it's a pulse, deep and mischievous. Just for a second, Logan’s mouth moves inward a notch, and something in her eyes makes it seem like she can tell.

“Big news.” Duncan’s voice is stiff and irritated at once as he knocks on the door. “While you were taking ‘just five minutes’ to change, the sun burned out and aliens landed on earth.”

Lilly flounces over and opens the door. “We foresaw their arrival,” she intones, and then, looking up at her brother with her face light and laughing, “We were using alien minutes, duh.” She starts to slip past him, Logan trailing behind her. “Grab the sunscreen, Veronica!” comes floating back down the hall after a few seconds.

Veronica takes the bottle from the top of the bureau and hurries after them. Duncan is beside her, footsteps muffled in the carpet. “How do you put up with that?” he asks, shaking his head.

Veronica shrugs. “It’s just Logan and Lilly. You know how they are.”

It’s what they always say about these things: when the two of them got high before going to the movies and laughed so hard they all got kicked out, when they snuck a bag of strap-ons into one of Celeste’s fundraisers at the San Diego Museum of Art and attached them to all the statues. But for once Duncan doesn’t seem satisfied. “Don’t you wish things were...different? Like they used to be?”

Veronica shrugs, but as they get outside, there's a part of her thinks that the answer might be yes. As she sees the glint of water on Logan’s slim shoulders, Veronica wishes that there were things she could unknow. As she sees the tilted back joy of Logan's head as Lilly whispers in her ear, there's a part of Veronica that wishes things hadn’t changed.

**Author's Note:**

> I understand that people with ADD (also OCD and ADHD) often prefer that these be used only in cases of official diagnosis rather than as slang. However part of the idea of gender swap is reconsidering male/female societal boundaries, including our perceptions. The same amount of energy and motion can be seen as natural in boys and excessive in girls. In that way the fidgeting and gesturing of a boy Logan that could be overlooked or considered a minor quirk, even an effeminate one, in a female version of the character it would stand out as odd, possibly verging on problematic.


End file.
